Kim's Isle of Rum Café is now going to open 1pm-7pm every Saturday, on a trial basis during May and June. If you're here between boats on a Saturday, you can pop in for some refreshment before the evening boat back to Mallaig.

Rum Café is also open Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm

You can also book an evening meal, any evening - the Friday Fish Supper, with fish from Andy Race in Mallaig, fried in Prosecco batter (or beer batter on request), comes highly recommended! It's best to book at least the day before, to be sure of getting a table.

Have a look at Kim's new website for details and booking - click on the photo (right) and it will take you there.

You can also email Kim Taylor - isleofrumteashop@gmail.com - for more details.

A summer walk to look for deer calves, and the usual October rut walks are running again this year:

Saturday 23rd June: Meet the Locals: A guided walk to Kilmory to learn about the Rum Deer Project and see the deer

Meet outside the Village Hall at 1pm, returning by around 8pm. There will be a short talk about the Deer Project and a chance to see the vast collection of skulls and antlers built up over the last 40+ years. Wear good boots – it’s a 16km (10 mile) round trip, on mostly dry but uneven surfaces. Bring a picnic supper, cameras, binoculars and midge repellent/jackets

£10 Adults / £5 Children *Booking essential*

Saturday 6th & Saturday 13th October 2018: The Rum Rut

Join the Ranger to see the red deer rut made famous by AutumnWatch. We’ll have a chance to see stags parallel walking, fighting and stealing hinds from other stags

We may also see golden and white-tailed eagles, hen harrier, wheatear, stonechat, twite, snipe and merlin

There will be a short talk about the work of the Rum Deer Project and a chance to see the vast collection of skulls and antlers built up over the last 40+ years

Meet outside the Village Hall at 9.15am(the Ranger will meet you at the pier at 8.50am if you are coming in on the Saturday morning boat), returning by around 5pm. Wear good boots – it’s a 16km (10 mile) round trip, on mostly dry but uneven surfaces

Bring a flask, packed lunch, cameras & binoculars

Cost: £15 Adults / £5 Children

*Places are limited to 12 for each walk, so booking is essential*

For booking and more details speak to the Ranger or contact her on ranger@isleofrum.com

Packed lunches and a meal after the walk can be booked in advance with Kim Taylor, email: isleofrumteashop@gmail.com for prices and details

This year, in addition to the usual Ranger Talk on the Isle of Rum, the Community Ranger Service is providing an expanded range of talks on diverse subjects throughout the season.

All talks take place in the Village Hall (but can be moved to the Bunkhouse on request) and cost £5 per adult and £2 per child (under 5s free) Talks can be repeated (or given) on request if you’re not here on the right day. Contact ranger@isleofrum.com for more details.

This week, we had a wonderful visit and evening talk from Karl and Siobhan of the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust (HWDT). They are the officers involved in setting up an exciting new network throughout the Hebrides.

The “Hebridean Whale Trail” is a planned network of 25 whale-watching sites to be created around Scotland’s west coast. 24 species of whales and dolphins have been recorded in the waters of the Hebrides.

“Western Scotland’s seas are one of Europe’s most important habitats for cetaceans and one of the UK’s most biologically productive areas”

HWDT

The exact sites have yet to be decided upon, but the Isle of Rum is highly likely to be one of them. The project will be officially launched at Easter this year, and is expected to take two years to complete.

Rum has much to offer in the winter as well as the summer: we are midge-free from October to May. Red deer stags are often seen around the village,

only disappearing briefly for the rut from September to November.

Seals, Otters and feral Goats are seen closer to the village from November to April, possibly due to there being fewer people about.

Golden and White-tailed eagles, Oystercatchers, Curlews, Red breasted Mergansers and Eider ducks are here all year; and you may spot some Great northern divers feeding in the bay during the winter. You may also see winter flocks of Redwings around the village and flocks of Twite and Snow buntings further up the glens.

Ranger wildlife walks, talks and wild food foraging expeditions are available all year round. You can forage for plants and seafood; learn about the history of Rum; visit croft ruins and ancient graves; sample local food and crafts; go fishing and hire (or bring) bicycles for a cycle ride to see Rum’s breathtaking beaches.

Rum Bunkhouse is always warm and welcoming – centrally heated with an eco-friendly wood pellet boiler – and in the common room you can also light the woodburner to thaw out cold feet after a bracing walk. To be honest, it doesn't get terribly cold here anyway: the surrounding seas give the Western Isles a very mild climate. Temperatures rarely drop below freezing, and it's often a comfortable 6C on Rum, while the mainland gasps at -4!

The bunkhouse has room for 20 people if you want to organise a group visit for a special occasion: Christmas, Hogmanay, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Reunions…

“….the [bunkhouse] construction is imaginative; the location is inspirational…”

Grateful though we always are for free publicity, we prefer the details to be correct! On Thursday 19th October, 2017, we were listed as No. 5 in the Guardian Online's 'Five of the UK's best birdwatching sites'.

Brilliant, wonderful, marvellous, fabulous etc etc to be included - BUT the article states that we have 50 breeding pairs of white-tailed sea eagles on Rum, along with golden eagles too!

Guess how many we really have. 30? No. 20? No. 10? No. 5? No.

The real number is 2. Rum has 2 pairs of breeding sea eagles. Actually, it's really 1 and a half, because we share a pair with the Isle of Canna!

So, if you are making plans to come and dive into our sea of sea eagles, please be aware that it's more of a puddle.